Alright, back on track. Missed the deadline on the last post due to lame school obligations but here we are once again. Today we look into the Striker class. Strike is more of a Dungeons and Dragons term for DPS rather than the WoW definition of things. If that still doesn't make sense to you, DPS stands for Damage Per Second, or just simply your damage output...but were getting off topic. Once again, MW2 doesn't really work on the standards that most RPG's do, but usually the purpose of DPS in a group is damage. Quick and nasty damage. So lets speed right in, and get down to it with the Striker.
The Striker
Primary Weapon: For the Striker, we want fast, burst damage. The best results for that is sub-machine guns. SMG's make for great weapons when you want to move quick but still crush your opponent. SMG's lack in range greatly, but again these guns are great for close, in your face action. I put my money on the UMP .45. With it's above average accuracy, top damage among the SMG class and middle of the ground fire rate, it makes for a great weapon. If you prefer to not worry about range and are the type of person that likes your rapid fire, rapid fire, best bet is to roll with the P90. With the second highest fire rate of the group, it personally tops the Vector because of it's damage and bigger clip size.
Attachment: Rapid fire is really fun, especially on guns where the fire rate is already jacked pretty high. While it doesn't up the damage of your gun, it sure as hell tears through someone like water through cheap toilet paper. I only ever tried Akimbo once with the UMP and as I have said numerous times, I'm not a hip fire person anyway, and I only really like it with the Ranger. As I always tell you kids, take advantages of sights.
Secondary Weapon: Now here's is another bit of contention for me for a quick damage class. It would see that a likely side arm would be a machine pistol due to their high fire rates and top mobility. If one were inclined to use a machine pistol, I suggest the PP2000. The stats are pretty average which makes it a good all around gun, where as the G18 is to inaccurate, the TMP fires slower and the M93 does burst fire.
Attachment: Sights, maybe Akimbo. In reality and a close fight using FMJ to try and get someone behind a wall or box wont work as effective if they are on the other side with a bigger gun in the first place.
Personally though for my Striker class, I pair myself with a Launcher. The reason behind this is A.) it's always good to keep a launcher handy and B.) With a SMG, and a few perks to help I can move around a lot better on a map, avoiding fire from above. It makes it easy to zip behind a building, get into a safe spot, and take down the jet. I prefer the Stinger above all else because of its nice lock on and damage. I know the Javelin and RPG-7 are favorites as well, but I don't really use my launcher to go after players, I really reserve it for taking down aircrafts.
Perk 1: Marathon Pro. Again our goal here with this class is speed. With unlimited sprint and a light weapon, you can kill someone twice before they notice once on small maps like Rust.
Perk 2: Lightweight Pro. Again it's all about the speed. Being able to sprint around someone, come up from behind and aim down your sight with quick flare is just plain fun.
Perk 3: SitRep Pro. I like this one because most of the time when I'm on the move, I'm not really looking at the ground or around corners slowly. I keep my head up to watch for oncoming traffic, so SitRep is a handy perk to have when you don't want to accident eat a claymore burger.
Death Streak: Painkiller or Martyrdom. A good health boost is nice incase you take off running soon as you spawn and encounter enemies, and you can never go wrong dropping a grenade if someone knifes you.
This post was pretty short, but again the Striker class is a pretty straight forward one. Get in, waste some dudes and get out. Next up is our Ranger/Hunter class, whatever you feel like calling it, and we'll be taking a look at the art of the sniper.
As always, thanks for reading.
- Nerdsbeware Out
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
I Have No Class: The Tank
By definition, speaking in WoW standards naturally, "A tank is a character whose primary role is to absorb damage and prevent others from being attacked." Now of course in MW2 there's no such real thing as a "tank" since there are no bosses fights or anything, but due to the load-out and perks I choose for this class, a tank seemed appropriate. Again you might say wouldn't a Riot Shield combo be a better fit? And you'd be right, but again this really isn't a RPG and I'll name my classes anything I damn please. Moving on, the point of the Tank is damage, lots and lots of damage. What better way to do that then getting some action with a Light Machine Gun. Paired with a good heavy damage side arm and perks that hopefully keep you alive a bit longer. Like I said in the previous post, these are just what I use and by no way a professional take on which weapons you SHOULD be using, just my favorites. Once again, a DPS based class would probably just be a better name fit, but hopefully you'll see my point.
Once again, for reference: http://www.themodernwarfare2.com/
The Tank
Primary Weapon: AUG HBAR. Hands down my favorite LMG. With it's superb accuracy for a machine gun and high damage, it makes for a great "tanking" weapon. I generally favor this weapon for those reasons, but the only downside I can see is if I remember correctly, the clip size isn't as big as say my second favorite LMG, the RPD The RPD lacks the accuracy and fire rate of say the MG4, but puts out optimal damage with a huge clip size. Nothing feels better than seeing and enemy peak out of a window, and unloading 300 bullets into the wall until you hit them. Now yea, it screws with your hit-miss ratio, but I'm more interested in getting a kill.
Attachment: In most games, I prefer a Grip to sights/scopes. Light machine guns accuracy is always an issue and the grip does a favorable amount to fix that. For something like the AUG with good accuracy, roll with a sight.
Secondary Weapon: Shotguns. Like I said above, I am looking for BIG damage output here. Shotguns are notoriously terrible with accuracy so really only pull them out when you need that close quick kill. With a LMG your clip is pretty big, so you should be able to hold tough with your primary for a while. At first I only used AA-12 because of its crazy fire-rate, and brutal damage, but then at level 42, I met the Ranger. A double barrel hellcat that is a pretty much guaranteed one shot kill if used right. Everything on this bad boy has pretty low stats except for damage, again, really only use this in a close fight. Time it right and you can fire off both barrels at once crushing your opponent.
Attachment: There are only two attachments available for the Ranger, FMJ, and of course if you play MW2 a fair bit, akimbo. If you are like me, at least once a match you round a corner to be looking down four barrels of death. It's cheap, but effective, use it.
Equipment: Again I stick with what I like, Claymores and Frag grenades. I tend to stay away from something like the throwing knife only because the gun takes kinda long to pull back out when you are switching weapons. As for special grenades, again stuns are always great due to the fact that it slows the enemy down making it easier to lay into them.
Perk 1: We can go two ways here, I'll explain each. First a great choice is Sleight of Hand Pro. Having large magazines comes with a price, they take a while to reload. SoH really helps cut down on that. You could always just switch to your secondary too. My second choice is Scavenger Pro. Again big magazines run out faster than you think, pick up more and keep unloading.
Perk 2: Lightweight Pro. Mentioned before, LMG's reduce your speed greatly due to their size, take that burden down a bit by being able to move some what faster. I like to use this instead of say Stopping Power because the guns do a fair amount of damage to begin, but I also don't know how or if Lightweight actually increases your overall speed with the gun. Will have to do some tests...
Perk 3: This one is sorta a tough choice since none really impact the effect guns. I tend to fall back on Commando Pro, but I guess Last Stand works as well. I wouldn't rely on Ninja or Scrambler because with a giant gun, you really aren't trying to be sneaky, but both are still good perks.
Death Streak: Painkiller or Final Stand. A nice boost when you spawn is always good, espeically in this case where you are using someone inaccurate guns. Final stand works as well because it allows you to still use say your Ranger to try and get off one last kill.
In closing, the Tank is a heavy hitter, pulling out all the stops to lay down destructive suppression fire while still being able to survive for a while. When I am looking to just have some fun on a map and blast the crap out of anything in my path, I play my tank. Part Three tomorrow will take a look into my Striker class, so check back for that!
Tip of the hat to you folks,
-Nerdsbeware out
Once again, for reference: http://www.themodernwarfare2.com/
The Tank
Primary Weapon: AUG HBAR. Hands down my favorite LMG. With it's superb accuracy for a machine gun and high damage, it makes for a great "tanking" weapon. I generally favor this weapon for those reasons, but the only downside I can see is if I remember correctly, the clip size isn't as big as say my second favorite LMG, the RPD The RPD lacks the accuracy and fire rate of say the MG4, but puts out optimal damage with a huge clip size. Nothing feels better than seeing and enemy peak out of a window, and unloading 300 bullets into the wall until you hit them. Now yea, it screws with your hit-miss ratio, but I'm more interested in getting a kill.
Attachment: In most games, I prefer a Grip to sights/scopes. Light machine guns accuracy is always an issue and the grip does a favorable amount to fix that. For something like the AUG with good accuracy, roll with a sight.
Secondary Weapon: Shotguns. Like I said above, I am looking for BIG damage output here. Shotguns are notoriously terrible with accuracy so really only pull them out when you need that close quick kill. With a LMG your clip is pretty big, so you should be able to hold tough with your primary for a while. At first I only used AA-12 because of its crazy fire-rate, and brutal damage, but then at level 42, I met the Ranger. A double barrel hellcat that is a pretty much guaranteed one shot kill if used right. Everything on this bad boy has pretty low stats except for damage, again, really only use this in a close fight. Time it right and you can fire off both barrels at once crushing your opponent.
Attachment: There are only two attachments available for the Ranger, FMJ, and of course if you play MW2 a fair bit, akimbo. If you are like me, at least once a match you round a corner to be looking down four barrels of death. It's cheap, but effective, use it.
Equipment: Again I stick with what I like, Claymores and Frag grenades. I tend to stay away from something like the throwing knife only because the gun takes kinda long to pull back out when you are switching weapons. As for special grenades, again stuns are always great due to the fact that it slows the enemy down making it easier to lay into them.
Perk 1: We can go two ways here, I'll explain each. First a great choice is Sleight of Hand Pro. Having large magazines comes with a price, they take a while to reload. SoH really helps cut down on that. You could always just switch to your secondary too. My second choice is Scavenger Pro. Again big magazines run out faster than you think, pick up more and keep unloading.
Perk 2: Lightweight Pro. Mentioned before, LMG's reduce your speed greatly due to their size, take that burden down a bit by being able to move some what faster. I like to use this instead of say Stopping Power because the guns do a fair amount of damage to begin, but I also don't know how or if Lightweight actually increases your overall speed with the gun. Will have to do some tests...
Perk 3: This one is sorta a tough choice since none really impact the effect guns. I tend to fall back on Commando Pro, but I guess Last Stand works as well. I wouldn't rely on Ninja or Scrambler because with a giant gun, you really aren't trying to be sneaky, but both are still good perks.
Death Streak: Painkiller or Final Stand. A nice boost when you spawn is always good, espeically in this case where you are using someone inaccurate guns. Final stand works as well because it allows you to still use say your Ranger to try and get off one last kill.
In closing, the Tank is a heavy hitter, pulling out all the stops to lay down destructive suppression fire while still being able to survive for a while. When I am looking to just have some fun on a map and blast the crap out of anything in my path, I play my tank. Part Three tomorrow will take a look into my Striker class, so check back for that!
Tip of the hat to you folks,
-Nerdsbeware out
Thursday, March 11, 2010
I Have No Class: The Main
Alright back to the games...well back to the game. I still cannot fathom how much of a hold Modern Warfare 2 has over me. Yes, yes I know I pretty much say that in every post, but it's only because it's 100% true. When I started playing Mass Effect 2 I took a nice hiatus (right around level 32 in MW2), but soon as I crushed out that final mission, I was right back in the rough of it. I'm now almost level 50, and really hitting my stride in the game. Some games I walk away amazed at how well I did, others I'm just trash. I guess it depends who is on the other side of that red dot. The thrill of the game is still there for me and I am sure in a few months from now I'll be able to put down the controller and walk away but for now, this is just as addictive as WoW was for me. The point of this post is really for you other fellow MW2 die-hards, or even if you aren't maybe this will change your mind about playing.
I'm a big RPG player, and since MW2 does a fair job of joining a first person shooter with RPG elements, it was only natural that I ended up using "class-based" naming schemes for my custom classes. First of which, naturally, is my main. My main changes from game to game usually, it's the one class that I switch stuff in and out of the most depending on the map and how I am doing. It's my good all purpose "I want to win" build.
Since I don't want to have to link every weapon 10 times in the post, this is a great site reference when reading these posts: http://www.themodernwarfare2.com/
The Main
Primary Weapon: On my main I use an assault rifle (generally the M16/SCAR, but lately I have been loving the TAR-21) but really, any assault will do due to their high rate of fire, generally good accuracy and a decent damage output. If you are more of a sharp shooter player, stick with the FAL, FAMAS and ACR. For a more run and gun scenario M4A, M16, F2000. The latter of the bunch being higher fire rates while still doing significant damage, and the first set having the highest accuracy, but lower than average damage. While they might hurt your mobility a slight bit, in general AR's make for a great all-purpose weapon.
Attachment: I personally love sights since I'm not really a good hip fire player. Especially for a gun like the TAR-21 that has low accuracy, they help. Otherwise for something like SCAR, FAL or ACR, FMJ works due to their lowered damage. In general I stay away from the grenade launcher unless I want to unlock the shotgun attachment. While heartbeat senors are alright, personally they aren't always reliable in cases where you are running or aiming with your stock sight. When it doubt, sights are always a good choice.
Secondary Weapon: For the main, I tend to stick with a handgun as my side arm. It's reliable, plain and simple. I tend to stray away from the Magnum, and while is damage is decent, it's accuracy and magazine size are not as sure fire as a USP.
Attachment: I don't use my side arm that much, opting for a knife kill in most close cases, but FMJ is always a good choice when using the USP/M9 due to their lower damage ranges, or even with the Magnum/Desert Eagle to just give it that little bit of extra kick. Again more damage is never a bad choice. If all else fails, Tact Knife it.
Equipment: Throwing knife. I love it. I'm not very good with it yet, but I love it. The knife takes a bit getting used to as you can either hip throw, or take a bit to hold and aim. On a level like Estate when we hold the house, nothing is better than sitting above the hot tub room, waiting for someone to come over the railing to meet a knife in the face. Otherwise, explosives are always great fall backs. I sway towards claymores, but a well placed Frag or Semtex does the job.
Perk 1: Sleight Of Hand Pro. 90% of the time I use this, but it varies between this and Scavenger Pro. It can never hurt to aim faster, or have 2-3 claymores set up in your crow's nest.
Perk 2: Hardline Pro. Like I said, this is my I want to win the match class, with hardline, that make it that much faster. Kill's come easier with AR's for me, so what better way to get more kills than calling in my Kill Streaks sooner. Stopping Power is good to for guns whose damage is less than optimal, while if you are running with the grenade launcher and/ or frags, Danger Close works just as well.
Perk 3: Command Pro. I like it just because when in doubt, pull out your knife.
Death Streak: Final Stand. Why not? A chance to get back up and fight some more, yes please.
For the most part, I end up with a good K:D ratio when using my main, and in cases where I might be playing another class and sucking, I can always switch back and pick up my score again. Like I said, this class is reliable. It's a good middle of the ground, new to the game build due to its all around average stats. Substitute and change based on your level, or even try a different weapon when one gets stale. I was using the M16 for a long time, but once I started doing not so well with it, switched to the TAR-21, and was sitting right back up at the top.
Stay tuned tomorrow for the next installment of my Modern Warfare 2 in depth class reviews, The Tank.
Thanks for reading,
Nerdsbeware out-
I'm a big RPG player, and since MW2 does a fair job of joining a first person shooter with RPG elements, it was only natural that I ended up using "class-based" naming schemes for my custom classes. First of which, naturally, is my main. My main changes from game to game usually, it's the one class that I switch stuff in and out of the most depending on the map and how I am doing. It's my good all purpose "I want to win" build.
Since I don't want to have to link every weapon 10 times in the post, this is a great site reference when reading these posts: http://www.themodernwarfare2.com/
The Main
Primary Weapon: On my main I use an assault rifle (generally the M16/SCAR, but lately I have been loving the TAR-21) but really, any assault will do due to their high rate of fire, generally good accuracy and a decent damage output. If you are more of a sharp shooter player, stick with the FAL, FAMAS and ACR. For a more run and gun scenario M4A, M16, F2000. The latter of the bunch being higher fire rates while still doing significant damage, and the first set having the highest accuracy, but lower than average damage. While they might hurt your mobility a slight bit, in general AR's make for a great all-purpose weapon.
Attachment: I personally love sights since I'm not really a good hip fire player. Especially for a gun like the TAR-21 that has low accuracy, they help. Otherwise for something like SCAR, FAL or ACR, FMJ works due to their lowered damage. In general I stay away from the grenade launcher unless I want to unlock the shotgun attachment. While heartbeat senors are alright, personally they aren't always reliable in cases where you are running or aiming with your stock sight. When it doubt, sights are always a good choice.
Secondary Weapon: For the main, I tend to stick with a handgun as my side arm. It's reliable, plain and simple. I tend to stray away from the Magnum, and while is damage is decent, it's accuracy and magazine size are not as sure fire as a USP.
Attachment: I don't use my side arm that much, opting for a knife kill in most close cases, but FMJ is always a good choice when using the USP/M9 due to their lower damage ranges, or even with the Magnum/Desert Eagle to just give it that little bit of extra kick. Again more damage is never a bad choice. If all else fails, Tact Knife it.
Equipment: Throwing knife. I love it. I'm not very good with it yet, but I love it. The knife takes a bit getting used to as you can either hip throw, or take a bit to hold and aim. On a level like Estate when we hold the house, nothing is better than sitting above the hot tub room, waiting for someone to come over the railing to meet a knife in the face. Otherwise, explosives are always great fall backs. I sway towards claymores, but a well placed Frag or Semtex does the job.
Perk 1: Sleight Of Hand Pro. 90% of the time I use this, but it varies between this and Scavenger Pro. It can never hurt to aim faster, or have 2-3 claymores set up in your crow's nest.
Perk 2: Hardline Pro. Like I said, this is my I want to win the match class, with hardline, that make it that much faster. Kill's come easier with AR's for me, so what better way to get more kills than calling in my Kill Streaks sooner. Stopping Power is good to for guns whose damage is less than optimal, while if you are running with the grenade launcher and/ or frags, Danger Close works just as well.
Perk 3: Command Pro. I like it just because when in doubt, pull out your knife.
Death Streak: Final Stand. Why not? A chance to get back up and fight some more, yes please.
For the most part, I end up with a good K:D ratio when using my main, and in cases where I might be playing another class and sucking, I can always switch back and pick up my score again. Like I said, this class is reliable. It's a good middle of the ground, new to the game build due to its all around average stats. Substitute and change based on your level, or even try a different weapon when one gets stale. I was using the M16 for a long time, but once I started doing not so well with it, switched to the TAR-21, and was sitting right back up at the top.
Stay tuned tomorrow for the next installment of my Modern Warfare 2 in depth class reviews, The Tank.
Thanks for reading,
Nerdsbeware out-
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
While Hollywood is off reinventing the wheel...
There are movies like this getting made, Terror At Blood Fart Lake.
Wow. I commended whoever came up with this concept, found the funding to make the movie, people to star in it and actually make it to some sort of distribution. Again it looks like it's supposed to be a spoof but the title alone brings into existence the thought that there are people out there making movies like that, and not shit like this.
For my day to day money making purposed, I do "data entry." I put that in quotes because it's not really as simple as that. I mean it is since what I do all day is essentially enter data into a database but there's a bit more to it. I work for a pretty major book distribution company that I will leave nameless, but we also distribute entertainment (read: movies, music, video games). Of my group there are five of us, and each get companies to handle. These companies range from Disney, to Sony to EMI down to the no name companies that just sorta float in the dead space that is entertainment distribution. I myself am pretty much responsible for half of that floating garbage. When I first started working here I was the new guy, so naturally I got junked with the small companies that are unheard and uncared for. Our main purpose here is to get titles that all the companies send, into our database, so that a buyer can order those titles for places such as Best Buy or Borders. So when a new release is coming out, say for instance Avatar or Sherlock Holmes on DVD/BluRay, we get that information anywhere from 2-4 months before the rest of you usually find out. I knew Inglorious Basterds was coming out in December, in August, practically a week after it hit theaters.
Being a huge movie fan, its a nice perk to know when my favorite summer movies are coming out, and when to put money aside for them.
Now I don't have JUST small companies, I have a few major ones, plus the best one of them all, I enter every and all video games into our system. So that same rule of finding out when stuff is coming out way in advance holds true for games as well. It's not a bad gig and it pays the bills, and from time to time we get free promo CD's and DVD's. What's nice is were not just handed a sheet and told to put it in, we get to actually talk to our vendors sometimes. It ends up being a bit more personal than just standard data entry. And then there's the movies like Terror At Blood Fart Lake. Every once and a while you get a gem like that, that crosses your desk and you remember that no matter how bad that movie looks, someone out there is trying to do something different and not adapt, reboot or sequel something.
Real question is, if I were to get a copy of this movie, who would watch it with me?
Last one for the day, I promise.
Nerdsbeware out-
Wow. I commended whoever came up with this concept, found the funding to make the movie, people to star in it and actually make it to some sort of distribution. Again it looks like it's supposed to be a spoof but the title alone brings into existence the thought that there are people out there making movies like that, and not shit like this.
For my day to day money making purposed, I do "data entry." I put that in quotes because it's not really as simple as that. I mean it is since what I do all day is essentially enter data into a database but there's a bit more to it. I work for a pretty major book distribution company that I will leave nameless, but we also distribute entertainment (read: movies, music, video games). Of my group there are five of us, and each get companies to handle. These companies range from Disney, to Sony to EMI down to the no name companies that just sorta float in the dead space that is entertainment distribution. I myself am pretty much responsible for half of that floating garbage. When I first started working here I was the new guy, so naturally I got junked with the small companies that are unheard and uncared for. Our main purpose here is to get titles that all the companies send, into our database, so that a buyer can order those titles for places such as Best Buy or Borders. So when a new release is coming out, say for instance Avatar or Sherlock Holmes on DVD/BluRay, we get that information anywhere from 2-4 months before the rest of you usually find out. I knew Inglorious Basterds was coming out in December, in August, practically a week after it hit theaters.
Being a huge movie fan, its a nice perk to know when my favorite summer movies are coming out, and when to put money aside for them.
Now I don't have JUST small companies, I have a few major ones, plus the best one of them all, I enter every and all video games into our system. So that same rule of finding out when stuff is coming out way in advance holds true for games as well. It's not a bad gig and it pays the bills, and from time to time we get free promo CD's and DVD's. What's nice is were not just handed a sheet and told to put it in, we get to actually talk to our vendors sometimes. It ends up being a bit more personal than just standard data entry. And then there's the movies like Terror At Blood Fart Lake. Every once and a while you get a gem like that, that crosses your desk and you remember that no matter how bad that movie looks, someone out there is trying to do something different and not adapt, reboot or sequel something.
Real question is, if I were to get a copy of this movie, who would watch it with me?
Last one for the day, I promise.
Nerdsbeware out-
The Plot Theif
I like movies, technically speaking I love movies (I also love lamp) but sometimes I hate them, and technically speaking (again) I hate them. I hate them for their ability to spill acid on anything awesome and melt away all the coolest parts of something, their ability to take a story and so brutally murder the shit out of it that you regret paying for that small piece of paper and stale popcorn. I got to see a movie like that, that I was very much looking forward to, and now wish to never see again.
My girlfriend reads a lot, I don't, as proof that I have a video game/movie blog and not one about books, either way, she generally knows what's good and what's not. I'm not really a fiction person, I like to stick to the whole wizards, lasers and hand drawn mediums. So when my girlfriend told me about a kid series based in Greek mythology but set in current times, eyebrows were raised, interests were perked. I really like Greek mythology, I don't know why but their gods and stories like the Odyssey, the setting of the Underworld, and all the different heroes that came with it was something that I really love. I was a staunch hater of Harry Potter when the book first came out, as I am with most things, if everyone else tends to LOVE it, I'll hate it. I saw the first movie, and my whole outlook changed. Deathly Hallows will definitely go down as one of my all time favorite books. Every once and a while, a good kid series like these come along, so when I was introduced to the world of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, I dove in head first.
As stated above I'm not one for reading that much in my free time with the exception of maybe World War Z or the Alphabet of Manliness, I decided to check out the first book in the series via audio means. This isn't really a review of the audio book, but the kid who did the reading, was pretty bland and boring. Despite his inability to have emotion in his voice, the book itself was awesome. The movie however, was horrible. The story is centered around Percy Jackson, a slightly troubled 12 year old with ADHD and dyslexia, no father figure to put him on the right track. While on a school trip he's attacked by some crazy bitch and the ball starts rolling. He finds out that he's a demigod, goes to a camp for other demigods and starts training. Soon its found out that someone stole Zeus's master bolt, and that its up to Percy and his friends to retrieve this bolt, seeing as Zeus thinks Percy stole under his fathers order. And of course, Percy's father turns out to be Poseidon, which is quite bad seeing as Greek gods aren't supposed to bang humans. The story is a roller coaster ride across the states from this point on with Percy and his gang running into all sorts of Greek mythology celebrities like Medusa and Hephaestus. Action ensues, bad guys revealed, bolt returned. That is pretty much like the quickest description of the book (I left out A LOT so go to the wiki page) I can give, since I want to review how badly the movie was adapted.
The title of this post is a correlation I made between the time when the book was licensed as a movie and the movie actually coming out. Someone obviously stole the plot to the movie, hid it far from director Chris Columbus, and replaced it with something that had nothing to do with the book. Once again I am not going to get huge into detail here because many of you haven't probably read the book, probably won't read or see the movie so it's not a severe gash to the face like it is to me. The major problems with the movie is that the whole plot was changed to something that had NO significance in the book. Something that was mentioned once, and not brought back til the end of the book. Major characters (and more importantly VILLAINS who have a huge outcome on the plot) were left out. The biggest one was Ares (and subsequently one of his daughters), the God of War. In the book all the Gods in the book are described as constantly moving with time and staying current which is a very cool plot point, and Ares was described as a biker who probably rolled with the Hell's Angels. Now on the credits it lists Ray Winstone, but it lists him as "uncredited." A point I found strange because while reading the book, I knew Ares played a large part. So I'm thinking alright maybe its just his voice? Could it possibly be him with make up or mostly CG? I didn't know but I did know he was probably going to look badass. Well turns out he never even shows up in the movie at all. W T F. I mean you have to understand this, Ares is pretty much the major antagonist during the book. The writer wants you to believe that its Hades since he is the lord of the Underworld but in the end its not. Hell Percy even has a brutal battle on a beach with him that serves as a "boss fight" for the end of the book really. So when you leave him out completely, it's sort of a big deal.
Again not to cut this short, but really I could go on for about five more pages how much I hated this adaptation. Characters changed, plot points missing (or added incorrectly), and scenes added for apparently no good goddamn reason. I trusted Columbus too seeing as he did the first two Harry Potter movies and they were really close to the book, and I enjoyed them a lot. I expected more from him. The final nail in the coffin for what should have been an awesome movie was Lady Gaga's Poker Face dance sequence followed by Kesha's TikTok. In a movie about Greek gods wanting to start war, and a kid trying to stop them.
Oh movies, how you love to fail me.
As always, thanks for reading,
Nerdsbeware out.
My girlfriend reads a lot, I don't, as proof that I have a video game/movie blog and not one about books, either way, she generally knows what's good and what's not. I'm not really a fiction person, I like to stick to the whole wizards, lasers and hand drawn mediums. So when my girlfriend told me about a kid series based in Greek mythology but set in current times, eyebrows were raised, interests were perked. I really like Greek mythology, I don't know why but their gods and stories like the Odyssey, the setting of the Underworld, and all the different heroes that came with it was something that I really love. I was a staunch hater of Harry Potter when the book first came out, as I am with most things, if everyone else tends to LOVE it, I'll hate it. I saw the first movie, and my whole outlook changed. Deathly Hallows will definitely go down as one of my all time favorite books. Every once and a while, a good kid series like these come along, so when I was introduced to the world of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, I dove in head first.
As stated above I'm not one for reading that much in my free time with the exception of maybe World War Z or the Alphabet of Manliness, I decided to check out the first book in the series via audio means. This isn't really a review of the audio book, but the kid who did the reading, was pretty bland and boring. Despite his inability to have emotion in his voice, the book itself was awesome. The movie however, was horrible. The story is centered around Percy Jackson, a slightly troubled 12 year old with ADHD and dyslexia, no father figure to put him on the right track. While on a school trip he's attacked by some crazy bitch and the ball starts rolling. He finds out that he's a demigod, goes to a camp for other demigods and starts training. Soon its found out that someone stole Zeus's master bolt, and that its up to Percy and his friends to retrieve this bolt, seeing as Zeus thinks Percy stole under his fathers order. And of course, Percy's father turns out to be Poseidon, which is quite bad seeing as Greek gods aren't supposed to bang humans. The story is a roller coaster ride across the states from this point on with Percy and his gang running into all sorts of Greek mythology celebrities like Medusa and Hephaestus. Action ensues, bad guys revealed, bolt returned. That is pretty much like the quickest description of the book (I left out A LOT so go to the wiki page) I can give, since I want to review how badly the movie was adapted.
The title of this post is a correlation I made between the time when the book was licensed as a movie and the movie actually coming out. Someone obviously stole the plot to the movie, hid it far from director Chris Columbus, and replaced it with something that had nothing to do with the book. Once again I am not going to get huge into detail here because many of you haven't probably read the book, probably won't read or see the movie so it's not a severe gash to the face like it is to me. The major problems with the movie is that the whole plot was changed to something that had NO significance in the book. Something that was mentioned once, and not brought back til the end of the book. Major characters (and more importantly VILLAINS who have a huge outcome on the plot) were left out. The biggest one was Ares (and subsequently one of his daughters), the God of War. In the book all the Gods in the book are described as constantly moving with time and staying current which is a very cool plot point, and Ares was described as a biker who probably rolled with the Hell's Angels. Now on the credits it lists Ray Winstone, but it lists him as "uncredited." A point I found strange because while reading the book, I knew Ares played a large part. So I'm thinking alright maybe its just his voice? Could it possibly be him with make up or mostly CG? I didn't know but I did know he was probably going to look badass. Well turns out he never even shows up in the movie at all. W T F. I mean you have to understand this, Ares is pretty much the major antagonist during the book. The writer wants you to believe that its Hades since he is the lord of the Underworld but in the end its not. Hell Percy even has a brutal battle on a beach with him that serves as a "boss fight" for the end of the book really. So when you leave him out completely, it's sort of a big deal.
Again not to cut this short, but really I could go on for about five more pages how much I hated this adaptation. Characters changed, plot points missing (or added incorrectly), and scenes added for apparently no good goddamn reason. I trusted Columbus too seeing as he did the first two Harry Potter movies and they were really close to the book, and I enjoyed them a lot. I expected more from him. The final nail in the coffin for what should have been an awesome movie was Lady Gaga's Poker Face dance sequence followed by Kesha's TikTok. In a movie about Greek gods wanting to start war, and a kid trying to stop them.
Oh movies, how you love to fail me.
As always, thanks for reading,
Nerdsbeware out.
Shifting Masses
The blog has been quiet as of late for many reasons. The main being, as I stated in another post, that I'm pretty much focused and honed on Mass Effect 2 or Modern Warfare 2. Bioshock 2 dropped sometime ago which I did not yet pick up due to the fact that I was/am trying to actually finish games when I start them. I failed pretty hardcore with Mass Effect 1. It happened to come out on the very same day that the original Rock Band came out, and I ended up buying both the same day. The choice was pretty clear, plastic drums were way way more interesting. ME ended up getting shelved for quite a while. I finally broke it out somewhere around a year or more later and started to play. I got a bit into the story, picked up a few squad mates, and then my WoW addiction kicked in and I lost track of the game again. Cut to another year later, I start up the game with the determination to start and finish it. Naturally that didn't happen. What we ended up with was me rushing through the first game the week that Mass Effect 2 was released. The reason for this was that you were able to import your Shepard from the first game into the second one and have all the consequences and outcomes (plus a nice boost to your XP and credits) become part of the storyline in ME2.
On Mass Effect 2 release day I walked into Best Buy, picked up a copy off the shelf (so much for your "not getting a copy unless you reserve" bullshit Gamestop) and went home. I promptly unwrapped the game and put it right on my shelf. It pained me to not be able to open it and place it in the tray and being my adventures as Commander Shepard again. No, I had to still finish the first game and at this point I wouldn't be touching ME2 until the weekend due to not being all that far into the first game. Needless to say the rest of the week was a blur as I raced through the main story line, picking up the rest of my team, blowing from planet to planet, hunting down Saren to save the galaxy. By the time the weekend hit, I was facing off against Saren and Sovereign and saving the galaxy. At this point in the game I hadn't capped yet, I was maybe in the high 40's and I was going to start a second play-through because as stated above, you could bring your character over to 2. That lasted all of 5 minutes before I said screw it, grabbed ME2 and dug in.
With the help of two decent snow storms, Mass Effect 2 is now finished. I capped out at lvl 26 (full cap is 30) so I basically want to play til I hit 30 so I can be ready for DLC and ME3. Bioware really through the game for a loop in terms of game play, and I have to say, I love 90% of the changes they made to the game. Being able to use powers like "cast-able spells" was a huge improvement in my eyes. In the first game I did A LOT of micro managing of myself and my team which I felt took a good deal away from the action aspect of the game, especially the ebb and flow of the story and action sequences. If you don't know what I am talking about, basically in the first Mass Effect you could only map one of your powers, other wise in the middle of a battle you would have to pause the game, pick the powers you wanted to cast yourself or your team, unpause the game, said powers cast, and then basically rinse and repeat. In it's second edition, you are able to map up to three powers and use them just by clicking the right and left bumpers on your controllers. Awesome.
There are a few other things they changed such as your inventory system, which virtually doesn't exist anymore. Instead of just changing full suits of gear, while on mission now you can stop at various shops and pick up various different pieces of armor (legs, chest, helmet and shoulders maybe hands?). Each piece of armor now has its own stats that you can mix and match to make a perfect gear set for your class. Guns now work a lot different as you only have a handful of options to choose from, but are able to upgrade whichever you want. No more having 10 pistols from Eden Prime sitting in your inventory. A few other things absent are all the Mako stuff thankfully, and with that Omni-Gel is pretty much gone too. Medi-Gel now works totally different, you get the Unity skill again (which in the first game you had to unlock) that basically brings your whole squad back to life, if you have the gel.
Over all the game was a huge improvement on the first one. Graphics were improved, the new combat style that they took with it love. There are still a few parts of the game that drive me nuts such as the mining mini-game to find minerals that will help upgrade your weapons, skills and other things. The new hack games are sub-par matching games that after the first few times (plus the hack extension upgrade) were like doing simple math. The load times are somewhat long but I think that was in response to no one wanting to stand around on elevators anymore, and sometimes the AI of your party just drops to 0 and they do something really stupid. Other than that the story is awesome, there was a real sense of "some of you might not make it back alive" to the larger picture, and there's some nice set ups for the third game. All in all if you love Bioware, and loved the first Mass Effect, pick this up, get the free DLC, and venture forth into the galaxy.
Commander Pria Shepard reporting for duty (and hitting on Yeoman Chambers...)
End Transmission.
Nerdsbeware out-
On Mass Effect 2 release day I walked into Best Buy, picked up a copy off the shelf (so much for your "not getting a copy unless you reserve" bullshit Gamestop) and went home. I promptly unwrapped the game and put it right on my shelf. It pained me to not be able to open it and place it in the tray and being my adventures as Commander Shepard again. No, I had to still finish the first game and at this point I wouldn't be touching ME2 until the weekend due to not being all that far into the first game. Needless to say the rest of the week was a blur as I raced through the main story line, picking up the rest of my team, blowing from planet to planet, hunting down Saren to save the galaxy. By the time the weekend hit, I was facing off against Saren and Sovereign and saving the galaxy. At this point in the game I hadn't capped yet, I was maybe in the high 40's and I was going to start a second play-through because as stated above, you could bring your character over to 2. That lasted all of 5 minutes before I said screw it, grabbed ME2 and dug in.
With the help of two decent snow storms, Mass Effect 2 is now finished. I capped out at lvl 26 (full cap is 30) so I basically want to play til I hit 30 so I can be ready for DLC and ME3. Bioware really through the game for a loop in terms of game play, and I have to say, I love 90% of the changes they made to the game. Being able to use powers like "cast-able spells" was a huge improvement in my eyes. In the first game I did A LOT of micro managing of myself and my team which I felt took a good deal away from the action aspect of the game, especially the ebb and flow of the story and action sequences. If you don't know what I am talking about, basically in the first Mass Effect you could only map one of your powers, other wise in the middle of a battle you would have to pause the game, pick the powers you wanted to cast yourself or your team, unpause the game, said powers cast, and then basically rinse and repeat. In it's second edition, you are able to map up to three powers and use them just by clicking the right and left bumpers on your controllers. Awesome.
There are a few other things they changed such as your inventory system, which virtually doesn't exist anymore. Instead of just changing full suits of gear, while on mission now you can stop at various shops and pick up various different pieces of armor (legs, chest, helmet and shoulders maybe hands?). Each piece of armor now has its own stats that you can mix and match to make a perfect gear set for your class. Guns now work a lot different as you only have a handful of options to choose from, but are able to upgrade whichever you want. No more having 10 pistols from Eden Prime sitting in your inventory. A few other things absent are all the Mako stuff thankfully, and with that Omni-Gel is pretty much gone too. Medi-Gel now works totally different, you get the Unity skill again (which in the first game you had to unlock) that basically brings your whole squad back to life, if you have the gel.
Over all the game was a huge improvement on the first one. Graphics were improved, the new combat style that they took with it love. There are still a few parts of the game that drive me nuts such as the mining mini-game to find minerals that will help upgrade your weapons, skills and other things. The new hack games are sub-par matching games that after the first few times (plus the hack extension upgrade) were like doing simple math. The load times are somewhat long but I think that was in response to no one wanting to stand around on elevators anymore, and sometimes the AI of your party just drops to 0 and they do something really stupid. Other than that the story is awesome, there was a real sense of "some of you might not make it back alive" to the larger picture, and there's some nice set ups for the third game. All in all if you love Bioware, and loved the first Mass Effect, pick this up, get the free DLC, and venture forth into the galaxy.
Commander Pria Shepard reporting for duty (and hitting on Yeoman Chambers...)
Quality might be lame because I had to take a picture of my TV since it's not hooked up to my computer for capture purposes.
End Transmission.
Nerdsbeware out-
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